Judge finds compromise in Oxford school board case

WEST CHESTER – Future members of the Oxford Area School Board will be elected in a combination of at-large and regional seats, according to a decision in a redistricting appeal issued by a Common Pleas Court judge.

On Nov. 19, Judge Robert Shenkin ruled that future boards would be comprised of three at-large members and six regional members, two from each of three new regions he authorized to meet changing population figures.

“In our view, while decidedly imperfect, the combination plan herein adopted comes closer to fulfilling the legal requirements and other proper considerations than any other legally permissible plan,” Shenkin wrote in a two-page opinion. He called the matter “a conundrum.”

The decision strikes a broad compromise between members of the board who had voted to adopt an all at-large system, and those community residents and board members who desired a more regional approach to the board’s composition that took into account demographic differences in the Oxford area.

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“Our citizens group was quite pleased with the decision,” said Oxford Area Concerned Citizens member Blair Fleischmann of Upper Oxford. “We believe that the decision reflects a way forward. It will maintain a regional balance, but also open up opportunities for people to fill in spots” from a broad area in the district.

The current board is elected from three regions, each of which has a distinctive demographic, either rural, urban, or exurban. The districts include Oxford; Elk, East Nottingham, and West Nottingham; and Lower Oxford and Upper Oxford.

In recent years,the growth of new residents in the Nottingham district outweighed other regions, and a reapportionment was deemed necessary.

The nine-member board voted 5-3 in 2011 to begin selecting all members by at-large vote. But to residents of the rural municipalities, that would mean the board would be dominated by East Nottigham, whose population has skyrocketed in comparison to other municipalities in the district.

The regions that Shekin’s order establishes are Upper Oxford, Lower Oxford East, and Oxford Borough East for Region One; Lower Oxford West, Oxford Borough West, and West Nottingham for Region Two; and Elk and East Nottingham for Region Three. All are roughly equal in population size.

Shekin said that to ensure an efficient transformation of the board’s make-up, all present board members would be assumed to have been elected from the regions in which they live, with the exception of members Donna Arrowood and Gary Olson, who will be designated at at-large members.

In the upcoming 2013 municipal election, voters will choose one at-large member and three regional members, one from each region, Shenkin ruled. In 2015, two at-large directors will be elected along with one members from each of the three regions. In subsequent off-year elections, the number of at-large members would alternate between one and two.

Ellis Katz, the attorney from a Bucks County law firm that represented the school board in its attempt to get approval for the at-large system, could not be reached for comment.

Board President Joseph Scheese, who supported the at-large plan, said he had not fully considered Shenkin’s decision, but still felt that the at-large plan would work best for the district and bar the need to constantly readjust voting districts to meet changing populations.

“Everybody should vote on all nine of us,” he said in an interview. “Any change is good change (but) getting to nine at large is better. Now whoever is on the board will have to insist on it (reapportionment) being done every 10 years based on the census.”

The appeal had brought the two sides to Shenkin’s courtroom earlier this year, when he initially urged the opponents to try to seek some compromise. That did not work, and he heard testimony in the case this past summer.

Information for this story was provided by Daily Local News correspondent Marcy Peyre-Ferry.